Family watching a loved one succumb to addiction often feels
powerless to exert change, and when a psychiatric condition complicates things,
family often feels helpless to make things better.

While it's true that a dual diagnosis complicates treatment,
treatment still works and works quite well, and there is always hope for a
better tomorrow.

It's not going to be easy, recovery from addiction never is,
but it's possible, and it's the only acceptable outcome.

Hope

Hope is an intangible. Hope is hard to measure, hard to
quantify, and hard to put into practice; yet without a belief that change is
possible, family cannot do much of value.

It's natural to get discouraged after your efforts are
rebuffed and you cannot seem to influence positive change. The things that work
are not always intuitive nor what feel good, but if family does get informed,
and does start to act in a concerted manner to exert change, the odds are high
that a dual diagnosis addict will also take some steps towards recovery. And
this is fantastic, because once walking that path, the road to health is open
and wide, and there is a great chance that addiction can be overcome.

1. Enforced sobriety

Many dual diagnosis patients take drugs or alcohol as a way
of self medicating the negative symptoms of their psychiatric condition.
Intoxication can bring a temporary reprieve from these negative symptoms, but
over time, using drugs or alcohol always exacerbates the severity of the mental
health challenge.

There is real therapeutic power in a period of enforced
sobriety. A few weeks away from drug or alcohol abuse can improve mental health
symptoms substantially, even without any of the additional and beneficial
therapies of drug treatment. Sobriety reduces the assault on the chemicals of
the mind, and allows for a natural healing of psychiatric symptoms.

Sobriety without therapy is probably not going to be enough,
but it does make a real difference, and it is a real start to recovery.

2. Medication

Whether or not the dual diagnosis addict has been diagnosed
and medicated while still using, the corresponding use of drugs or alcohol
greatly reduces the efficacy of these otherwise very effective psychiatric
medications.

Addicts using don’t often take
medications on schedule and most of these drugs do not work well when taken
with other intoxicants.

Getting into treatment, getting sober and receiving
appropriate medication can greatly reduce symptoms severity, and can get the
dual diagnosis addict feeling better and thinking more clearly.

With a reduction in symptoms severity, the addict in
recovery can participate more intensely in the recovery process, can take
ownership over the process, and can experience in part what getting sober and
getting healthy feels like.

Getting sober and getting medicated can get the addict in
recovery feeling so much better that they once again want sobriety as a
lifestyle, and have them once again hopeful for a life free from the pains of
abuse, and the clouding of mental illness.

3. Inspiration from Others

Recovery at its best doesn’t happen alone.

Dual diagnosis addicts are often trapped within a web of
hopelessness and irresponsibility, and without transitioning to a belief in recovery
and an ownership over the process, sustained betterment is unlikely.

A dual diagnosis is tough, and it's unfortunate that anyone
must endure the trial-but equally-there is no point in wishing away what life
brings. Recovery is possible.

Recovering in a group with others also facing similar life
challenges can inspire, and the authentic inspiration of witnessing other dual
diagnosis addicts get better is not easily mimicked outside of the group recovery
environment.

You can’t say it's impossible when you watch someone else that
you know suffers as you do get better. You can’t say you can’t do it when
others do.

A period in a residential rehab brings many things to the
table, and sobriety and professional therapy (medication) help greatly, but
unless that recovering addict can be made to believe in the possibility of a
life without abuse, and believe that they must ultimately choose to participate
in this recovery, all else is irrelevant. Group therapy in rehab brings the
hope towards recovery, hope that is so desperately needed.

Recovery and Hope

No one says it's going to be easy and no says it's fair
either – but recovery is possible. Keep hope alive, believe that it is possible
(it is) and work towards getting the dual diagnosis addict into a program where
they will get sober, get medicated; and hopefully, get inspired.

Family can do a lot, and they can take steps to get a loved
one into appropriate treatment, but at the end of the day recovery happens from
within, and without belief, determination and inspiration, recovery can’t hold.

Help them find the inspiration they need. Help them get into
a group recovery environment.

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